Sylvain Saulne's giants and what brought them to life

Sylvain Saulne is a digital artist based somewhere in the West of France. His art on Instagram has called my attention since the first time I saw one of his drawings featuring a giant just relaxing in a city's river bed. In my opinion his Instagram profile is a hidden gem - and I can only recommend yo have a look at his work!

When did you go "digital" with your art?In 2007, the drawings of my first comic strip were made on paper, but the color was done with Photoshop. I had a very small Wacom tablet at the time, and the transition was made instantly by discovering the Ctrl-Z button.

What inspires you?Travelling. It was while living in China that I realised how important it was for me to get lost in unknown places in order to force myself to start all over again, to re-learn, to re-discover. It's by forcing myself to start all over again that my imagination works best.

What inspired you to do these giants in pictures series? Do your Characters have a back-story that only you know?I started drawing on my old travel photos to give them a second life. I added bugs, a Totoro, a zombie, spirits, and a giant who was watching us in the apartment on the sixteenth floor where I lived. The giant was cool and worked well with the size of the buildings, so I started again later with a giant, then another, then another etc. The gigantism of Shanghai made me want to see things big.

How does PaperLike help you in the process of creating digital art?The glass screen of the iPad remains cold and distant. PaperLike makes work smoother, more enjoyable. This feeling of drawing on real paper makes me want to come back to drawing on it more easily than when I did not have it.

How long does it take to create an artwork? I have trouble calculating my work time on an illustration, because I take many breaks between sketching, inking and color. Digesting each step helps me see the mistakes that would have gone unnoticed if I had done it all at once.

Do you have any tips for aspiring artists who are just starting with digital art?It's a fairly generic advice that works for everything, but there is no miracle: the only way to get there is to know what you want, and to focus on it 100%.

Thanks Sylvain, it was a joy interviewing you and we hope we translated your french text correctly! Now keep up with the awesome work, we can't wait to see your next post on Instagram.

The PaperLike won't automatically make your art jump out into the world like Sylvain's Giants, but it will make the process of drawing on the iPad with the Apple Pencil so much more enjoyable! 1 year 100% satisfaction guarantee -Give it a try!

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